Govt to shut down Facebook to prevent question leak

Staff Reporter :The Education Ministry plans to shut the facebook and others social media for a certain time during the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and its equivalent examinations, the Ministry sources said. The purpose of closing of the social media is to check question papers leakage, the top bosses of the Ministry said. The examinations will start across the country from February 1. "I have requested the authorities concerned to keep the facebook site closed for a limited time during the SSC examinations to prevent the question paper leaks," Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told the reporters in the Secretariat on Tuesday. The Ministry of the Information Communication and Technology will talk to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to make the efforts a success, Nahid said. Explaining the planned outage for a 'limited time', he said, they are trying to analyse when the leaked questions appear on the social media before the tests and considering ways to block access to those sites during that time. "It can be just for an hour or two," Nahid said adding they were "very desperate and very aggressive" about the matter.In the past the questions of public examinations have leaked on the internet the night before the tests, which can be found on Facebook in the morning.Asked whether a clampdown for one or two hours will actually work, Nahid cited some research that found the leaked questions usually appearing on the social media just before the dawn and early in the morning. "Questions for the examination centres in remote areas are dispatched early in the morning. It has been found that the one; which appears its resemble the original question." Holding coaching centers sole responsible for the incident of the question paper leakage, Nahid said all the coaching centres across the country will remain closed for three days before the SSC examinations.He said a vigilance team will keep close watch on the examination centres so that no teacher can unveil the question papers before half an hour of the examinations."If any teacher is found disloyal in maintaining the secrecy, he or she will be suspended instantly," Nahid said.He said also all the examinees will have to reach their respective examination centres within 9:30am and no excuse of their delay under any circumstances will be considered. Meanwhile, the Ministry instructed that the students have to enter the centres half an hour before the tests or else they will be barred from taking part in the examinations.Nurul Islam Nahid advised students and parents to keep in mind the traffic and the distance of their centres to reach in time. "The students must take their seats by 9:30am for the tests which will start at 10."He said centre secretaries will not be allowed to open the sealed envelopes containing the questions before 9:30am. "If that happens, it will be considered an offence and legal measures will be initiated."